It has long been known that a circular cylinder rotating about its central axis is capable of producing a lift force when placed in an air stream flowing normal to the axis. This lift force has a direction normal to the axis and to the free stream flow direction. The lifting effect thus produced is known as the Magnus effect after the person who first investigated the phenomenon in 1853.
The basic idea was applied to marine propulsion by Anton Flettner around 1924 but made little progress commercially owing to the unwieldy structure used and to the relatively low cost of fuel which made its application uneconomic.